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Happy Easter egg dyeing with onion skins

I woke up this morning and found the hubby in the kitchen, boiling onion skins. A LOT of onion skins.

“It’s Easter. Time to dye eggs,” he said. It’s a DIY DYE day. Game on.

There’s quite a bit out there on the internet on this subject, so admittedly, this is nothing new. But I wanted to try it for myself to see if I experience the same outcome in this seemingly no-brainer project.

The great thing is, it’s really cheap and fairly fast (and easy). And there are pretty things to admire along the way.

So let’s dye it.

You’ll need:

6 eggs (of course you can dye as many as you’d like, but I went with 6. Also, white eggs probably result in better prints but I haven’t bought white eggs since 1982)

5 large yellow onions (for the skin only! I won’t tell PETA, or PETO in this case)

Random leaves (the more perforated, the prettier the outcome)

Cheese cloth (pantyhose works as well, but I haven’t bought pantyhose since 1982)

String to tie cheese cloth

2 tbsp white vinegar

A small pot of water (use enough to cover how many eggs you’ll be dyeing)

What to do

Peel the onions and place skin in the pot of water. Add vinegar to pot.

Boil water for 1/2 hour to 45 minutes (or until desired color tone).

Cut cheese cloth into squares that will fit around each egg with plenty of room to spare for tying.

Place leaves on cheese cloth and egg on top of leaf on top of cheese cloth (does that make sense?). Wrap egg with cheese cloth and gather the corners. Tie string around to secure.

Place prepared eggs in pot of dye and simmer for about 20 minutes.

You’ll see the dye start to do its thang after a few minutes.

Remove eggs from dye and cool (I just put ’em in a bowl).

Untie carefully and voila.

So the thing is, not all the eggs turned out glorious. If you use cheesecloth, you’ll see the grid pattern appear.

See what I mean? I’m thinking the pantyhose route might be better. But I haven’t bought pantyhose since 1982. I also recommend tying the cloth tighter or the dye will creep in under the leaves.